What is League of Legends?
If you're familiar with WC3, and/or the DotA series that spawned from it (DotA, DotA: Allstars, HoN, etc.), here's an article to get you started.

For those not familiar with DotA, the gameplay of League of Legends can best be described as a session-based action RPG. The developers of LoL classify it in a new genre entirely, as a MOBA or “Multiplayer Online Battle Arena”. You start the game at level one, with a small amount of gold, and no items. As you play, you receive experience and gold. This allows you to level up and purchase items, which increases both the power of your champions abilities, as well as their core stats. The main goal of every match is to destroy the opposing team's "Nexus", a structure found at the heart of their base. To get there, you must first fight your way past hordes of computer controlled monsters, also known as minions, which continuously spawn from the enemy base. The base itself is protected by structures called turrets, which also must be destroyed. Whichever team destroys the other team's Nexus first, wins the game. It's truly a team oriented game, and you need to work together to succeed.

[release]Why should I play League of Legends over DotA?

*New and original playable champions.
*Built-in surrender functionality.
*A new in-game interface, with controls designed for this style of play.
*Account-level progression, adding out-of-game strategic depth and customization, known as the summoner system. This includes Runes and Masteries.
*Regular updates with many more features to come!
*An improved mini-map that shows your champion's pathing.
*Multiple maps, (Summoner's Rift, Summoner's Rift: Winter, Twisted Treeline, The Proving Grounds, The Crystal Scar Magma Chamber coming "soon™")
*Easier to pick up and learn
*Did I mention the game is completely FREE?[/release]

Game Mechanics:

Summoner Spells

You are allowed the use of two Summoner Spells in any match of League of Legends. You can choose from a large variety prior to the start of a game. They are all unique, and can easily alter the game in your favor if you use them correctly.

Masteries

You can put up to 30 points, which are gained upon leveling up, into three categories of masteries - offense, defense, and utility. Some of the more advanced masteries require investment in lesser masteries. Summoner masteries are not set in stone; depending on the champion that you want to play, they may be changed to better suit your needs. You can even set them while selecting your champion before a match begins, so if your favorite champion is taken, you can change your masteries to better suit another. With the newest update to League of Legends, you can now save up to 10 mastery pages locally so you won't have to manually change them ever again.

Runes

Before queuing for a match, you can make use of "Runes" to increase your champion's power. There are four types of Runes that you can use: glyphs, marks, seals, and quintessences. Before a match begins, you can choose from one of up to nine different rune configurations you have previously set in your Runebook. This allows for maximum flexibility in choosing a Runebook that is best suited for whatever champion end up using. You CANNOT change these while selecting your champion, so choose wisely before entering the queue. Even if you are unsure of how you want to build your champion, you should always select a rune page before entering the game. Runes can only benefit your character, and are never detrimental.

Every champion has a role to play. Here's the general archetypes of champions found within the game:

Assassins: These champions specialize in taking out other champions. They are usually pretty frail, but make up for this in increased mobility with blinks, teleports, jumps, and even stealth abilities. These champions (a la their namesake) get into the action, burst down an enemy, and walk right out.

Tanks: They have the most health, the most armor, and the most magic resistance. These are the champions that initiate team fights and soak all the damage. They don't generally get as many kills as other champions, but they are great at getting assists. Some of them can force champions into attacking them, some of them can stun, while others have forms of "crowd control" that affect the entire enemy team.

Fighters: These champions deal damage per second, or DPS. They rely on armor penetration, attack damage, and attack speed to get the job done. Some of them are tougher than others, and some of them have abilities which augment their attack speed, their attack damage, or even their movement speed.

Mages: Mages are capable of extreme burst damage, and rely heavily on items that give them bonus magic penetration and ability power. Most of them are out of luck when their abilities are on cooldown.

Support: These are the champions that support the team. They save the lives of their team mates, whilst simultaneously making life a living hell for the other team. They don't get many kills, but they do win games.

Q: Is it difficult to unlock champions?

Not really. For one thing, Riot selects ten new champions every week. For that week, the champions they selected are free to play. However, if you want to purchase a champion forever, you can use the Influence Points you earn while playing the game. Champions cost various amounts of IP, from 450 IP all the way up to 6300 IP. Winning a game, on average, nets you a bit more than 100 I.P. If it's your first win of the day, it's usually around 250 IP. Losing games even nets you around 70 IP. The free champions give you a taste, whilst IP is primarily used to unlock the champions you really liked when they were free.

Q: What if I want to spend moneyyy on champions?

Generally we'll recommend against that in this thread as farming IP for champions isn't terribly hard but there is a fairly cheap way to get half the heroes in LoL. For $10 you can buy 1380 Riot Points, which are used to buy champions and skins. 3900 of those points gets you the Digital Collector's Pack, which contains 20 champions and includes 1380 additional Riot Points.

Q: My friend and I want to play in the same game. Can we?

Of course! If you're new, you might want to stick with the practice mode before you move onto the normal or ranked mode. People in the normal and ranked modes know what they are doing, especially the players in the ranked mode. You and your friend can practice against bots and get a feel of the game itself in practice mode.
The only catch is you have to be on the same server as your friends. Servers are split to North America, EU West and EU Nordic & East. If you're Australian play on the North American server.

Riot is passionate about the competitive scene in LoL. They hold sponsored tournaments all year long which build up into a grand finals ladder. The prizes of these tournaments are nothing to scoff at. If you have the ability to play well then competing in LoL could be for you.

Q: What about skins?

So you want buy a skin? Well don't even think about it. Not yet at least. Buying a skin costs real cash money so you wanna spend it well. There are a few things you want to consider when buying a skin:

1. How often do I play the hero?
2. Is it just a recolor of the default texture or did they need to make a whole new one?
3. Is it still crap even if they made a whole new texture?
4. Does it come with particle effects?

If you haven't played the hero more than a dozen times, don't buy a skin for him. If you find yourself playing that hero a lot more, then go for it. Do not buy a recolor though. You may wonder what I mean by this. I mean skins like Nottingham Ezreal and Shadow Evelynn. They are, literally, recolors of the default models.

Signing up is free. I'm going to give you two options, though. I would very much appreciate you signing up through my referral link. if you could give me a referral. Signing up with my link does benefit me in the end, but you don't have to use my link if you don't want to! Keep in mind, I only get credited if your account reaches level five. If you do sign-up with my link, and you like the game; please keep playing!

[release]Q: I'm signed up. Now what?

*Start off with the tutorial! It will teach you the basic controls, game play mechanics, and the objectives of the game.
*Once you have a good handle on that, start a practice game and add bots. Practice mode allows you to explore the map and try out new champion,s without having to worry about playing well. The Bots aren't very difficult to beat, so don't expect them to be on par with actual players.
*If you can handle the bots, and feel like you have a good handle on the game itself, try a practice game with actual players. Look in the lobby for games called "new players only" or "levels 1-5", etc.
*The Co-op vs. AI mode puts you against harder bots with a team of real players. Great way to practice working together with others.
*Look up character guides on solomid.net or ask us here. We can, usually, give good advice for any character.
*When you feel like you're ready, join a Normal Game with solo queue![/release]
Helpful Links

1. Press the two chat bubbles on the lower right. 2. Press the chat bubble with a + sign. 3. Type in "Facepunch". 4. Click on the gear in the chat window. 5. Set to auto join on start up. From now you will always be able to create matches and chat with people from Facepunch.